Chinese New Year Party (2/17)

Finally the Big Day has arrived. It was really successful and everyone brought home with them a sweet memory from this celebration…….

It was 2 weeks ago (on KL & YL’s Baby Shower Day) when we have decided to make this Chinese New Year a very special one. We want to make it BIG and so BIG that it will include all the Malaysians that we can account of and the Chinese will provide food to all the guests. One of the reasons for our decision is that the Malays had invited all the Chinese to their Hari Raya Celebration last year and it’s our turn to return the courtesy. Once the decision was made, we each volunteered to provide at least one dish that can feed up to 20 people. It started with only about 8 families contributing the following dishes:
Lena & Jeffrey - Stewed Chicken Feet with Mushroom
Angela & Tharu - Shrimp and Scallop
Ivy, Winnie & Jamie - Roasted Pork (Char Siew) & Sweet and Sour Fish
Patricia & Anjoe - Sambal Chicken
Yeen Lee & Kang Lung - Char Chi Kai (Crispy Chicken) from Lucky Wok
Caroline & Gary - Plasticware, Fried Popiah, Steam and Fried Rice & Yee Sang
Rita & Steven - Tofu dish and Chinese dessert (Nian Gao)
Kean Teik & Wee Sen - Ice & Lots of Drinks, Drinks and Drinks for children and adults

Soon, Carol (our head coordinator) composed an e-mail to all our Chinese friends about our big plan, within a week many have replied and our lists of food became longer:
Siew Lau - veggie Sushi roll and fried calamari
Diana & Adrian - Fried Pickle Veggie with meat
Tze Ching & Yee Sin - Dumplings and Tong Sui
Rach & Egwin - Kung Pao Chicken
Clarice Kinsella - Vegetarian Dish
Ang Eng Chew - Fried Mee Hoon and Sambal Ikan Bilis
Daniel - 3 bags of Tangerines
Shirnee & family - cake
Elaine & Kyle - Fried chicken wings
Yim & Shun - Curry chicken and Thai Salad
Jason Chooi - Kacang (Peanut)/ Kua Chi (Watermelonseed/Sunflowerseed)
Danny Ng - Salt Baked Chicken
Eric & Michelle - Mild spicy salmon cooked in coconut milk
Lauren & Scott - Kuih Talam

Let's not forget to mention that the Malaysian Association paid for the rental of the venue for this event. With the support & contributions of everyone (we have enough food to feed the whole "kampung"!!), we confidently extended our invitation to our Malay and Indian friends. There were also some details that many have helped solve, such as decorations (Angela's mom sent from Malaysia), table settings (again thanks to Carol & Lena!), Chinese New Year songs, food warmers, MC (good job Egwin), and photographers (thanks to Gary & Steven). Few days before our BIG DAY, Carol again sent out an e-mail informing everyone that about 80 people have confirmed their attendance and attached the list of food for our party. That was really an exciting and mouth-watering e-mail....I was so looking forward to it..:P
On that day, Athena and Nelia dressed up in their new dresses. Jamie wore his new shirt and pants too. Ivy found a new pink top and I put on a cheongsam that I borrowed from Ghita (a Malay friend...yeah, even Chinese don't have as many cheongsams as she does..:)). When we arrived at the party (about 6:30pm), the big party room was half full of people and the food table started from one side of the wall to the other side of the wall. There were more food than what I listed here and I found out that our Malay and Indian friends also brought food to share! To make this event more special, Steven has set up his professional camera with lighting at the sitting area to take pictures for everyone (I finally has a nice family picture...Thanks so much, Steven!!).

The event started with a funny welcome speech from our MC, Egwin. Then we "Loh Yee Sang" (Carol's & Lena's mom sent from Malaysia). For what I can remember, the next few hours I just ate...ate ...ate, talked...talked...talked and laughed...laughed...laughed!!!I believe everyone else did the same. We had so much fun until we realized it's time to clean up and leave. So, everyone "gotong-royong" again to help clean-up and arrange the tables/chairs. Not quite "puas", so we continued our party at Wee Sen's house. At his house, we ate our home-made cookies, played blackjack & mahjong, and chit-chat till about 3:00am....It was the first time I feel as if I was celebrating Chinese New Year in Malaysia. Thanks to all that made this Chinese New Year so memorable...:)

My Special Valentine's Day (2/14)

How did you celebrate your Valentine’s Day?
Our Valentine’s Day turned out quite unexpected….
Usually, we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, or even Anniversary Day. Anyway this year was a little different. I read about an article on celebrating Valentine’s Day with kids. Well, I really like the ideas of giving them greeting card and enjoying candle-light dinner together. That night when I got home from work, I cleaned up the ever-messy dinning table, put lots of candles and a Valentine’s Day card (Jamie bought it for the girls, it has beautiful Princess Ariel on it) in the center. I moved away Nelia’s high chair planning to let her sit on Athena’s booster chair and Athena can sit without the booster, that way we will all sit around the table. For dinner, both girls had chicken drumstick and mashed potatoes and we had pork chops (Oops…. I overcooked them).
Finally, they came home from school. Athena quickly realized the lights were off. She asked, “ Mommy, why did you turned off the lights?” Well, I patiently explained to her it's our special Valentine's Day dinner. Both girl were excited to see the candles, we sat down and eat while Nelia kept asking whether she can blow the candles yet..:P Half way through the dinner, Nelia made noise and wanted her own high chair. Jamie moved the high chair back and put Nelia in it. We continued eating. Not after 1 minute and Athena said, "Mommy, I can't see.." and she jumped off the chair and turned on the lights....there goes all my effort....:(

Snow Day (2/13)

It snowed again last night (2nd time of this year) and accumulated about 3-4 inches of snow this morning. The roads were really icy when I drove to work.
Snow is pretty!! I like to see snow falling from the sky (so romantic!) and also enjoy looking at the pretty scenes of snow covered trees. However, I hate to drive in snow or on icy roads (cannot be "fast & furious" and if you get into an accident, people will assume that you were speeding like a moron). Just a reminder to my friends who have to drive on icy roads - check your tires and your cell phone's battery (this one is for myself)..:)
While we are on the same topic, I would like to share with you some cute pictures of Athena and Nelia that I have taken on the first snow day of 2007 (1/21). Nelia was really excited because it was her first time to play in the snow. The snow was soft and puffy and we built a snow "princess" together. After 3 days in the sun, the snow princess turned into a pile of slush.

Cookies Madness (2/9-2/10)

It all began when a bunch of girls who crave for Chinese New Year cookies decided to try to make some themselves......
Each one in charge of one type of cookie. I would love to EAT but "Bake it yourself" sounds too unreal. For the past few years, I will receive cookies from my aunt or my mom from Malaysia (whether on time for CNY or after, but they never failed to do that..:P) Well, recently I was told that the shipping companies are really strict and will not accept perishable food? (The bird's nest that my brother sent, travelled half the globe to the US, got rejected at the US custom and travelled half the globe back, and then was taxed by the Malaysian custom when it arrived back home..who wants to risk it again?). So this year we'll be on our own. Like what Angela said, we can't get cookies here, so if we want to eat then we bake it.
I couldn't decide what cookies to make at first. I remember when I was little, together with my Ah Mah (grandma) and my aunts, we sat down by the charcoal fire to make "kuih bahulu" and "kuih kapit". So hoping that I will have the same "FUN" if I make the same cookies, I chose to make kuih kapit. I guess you all know that to make kuih kapit, we need to have the kuih kapit moulds. After few days scratching my head, I finally came out with an idea (I thought I was smart...). I asked Jamie to buy the electric grill/griddle from Costco.
Friday, 2/9 - It's my day off and I prepared all the ingredients and started making kuih kapit. Confidently, I followed the recipes and soon the batter was ready. I put the first scoop of batter on the griddle.... After about an hour, I managed to produce 8 “thick” kuih kapit, then I gave up... It was a total failure. Well, the story didn’t end here…. My “smart” sister, Ivy, suggested that I should use an appliance called “Pizzelle Maker” (I bet not many people heard of this before). I searched online and it really looks like an electric kuih kapit mould. I said to her,“Walau, why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Then I jumped into my car and drove to the stores. To my dismay, it’s not available in any of the stores. I came home after 2 hours of driving around like a mad woman….really frustrated. That night I didn’t cook dinner…We had take-outs and I complained to Jamie a lot. After dinner, he decided to help me call all the stores in KC area (so that he can sleep in peace that night :P). Yup, he tried all the stores with a kitchen department that you can name of…none of them had it…. When I was about to give up, the Bed Bath & Beyond store said there is one available at their store in Lawrence ( about 40 mins drive). Sweet enough, he went and got it for me that night (If you have heard of this story, I am sorry that you have to read it again).


Sat, 2/10 – The kuih kapit that came out from the pizzelle maker were a little thicker than those we can get in Malaysia. I thought it’s because of the batter, so after finished the first batter mix, I use a different recipes to make the batter (I found many different recipes online). The second batch came out like the ones before but this time weren’t enough “santan” smell (according to my advisors, Lena and Carol). It was very time consuming as only can make two at a time. So, half of the day went by and I still couldn’t figure how to improve my cookies. Then, there came the life-saver phone call from Lena. She was calling to see whether I have started making my cookies and wanted to know what type of cookies I am making as I have been keeping it a secret. She even invited me to go make the cookies with Carol and her as they are making cornflake cookies (I bet Lena has learned a lesson as she and Carol have to stay up late due to that phone call…:P). I brought all my stuffs to Carol's house and we decided to try another new recipes (with really good ratings online). First, Gary was sent to buy santan aka coconut milk for us twice..:P Then, I told them I have to go out for dinner with KL & YL (KL's birthday) and they probably never thought of that coming..:) When I came back from the dinner (about 9:30pm), both of them still making kuih kapit. I quickly took over and Wan Heng helped rolled up the cookies. This time the kuih kapit tasted like the ones back home and were thinner (credits to Carol & Lena spending hours experimenting the batter to the right consistency). Supposingly with Wan Heng and me in charge of finishing making the kuih kapit, Carol and Lena should be taking a break now but crazily enough they continued making new cookies (peanut cookies). The cookie making madness finally over at 2 a.m.

*Even though our made-from-scratch cookies were not as pretty as those back home, We thought they were the best cookies ever because we made them ourselves...:P*

Special credits to:

- Zurin - Kuih Bangkit/Dragon Cookies & Peanut Cookies
- Rachel - Peanut Cookies
- Patricia & Diana - Pineapple Cookies
- Angela - Kuih Bangkit & Pineapple Cookies
- Carol & Lena - Corn Flake Cookies, Peanut Cookies & Cashew Nut Cookies
- Winnie (with special help from Carol & Lena (Lots of help & the best recipe), Wan Heng (the best roller), Ivy (introduced the pizzelle maker), Jamie (hard work of getting the pizzelle maker), Gary (the best "Santan" shopper)) - Kuih Kapit

Super Bowl XLI (2/4/07)

This year Super Bowl XLI game was televised to 232 countries and was estimated to have about one billion people watching worldwide. Proudly, we were among the one billion people watching the game. Like any years before, Tharu (football fanatic) and Angela hosted the Super Bowl party and generously prepared lots of food (8 large pizzas, Popeye fried chicken, spring rolls, BBQ wings, potato caserole, chips and more) and drinks for about 30 of us. To make the party more fun, Angela has baked a football shape cake and I thought that was really cool.
Tharu put out his newly bought LCD big screen in the 2nd living area to entertain the kids. All guys were in the lower level living room in front of the other big screen TV. All girls were in the kitchen (May be because it's where all the food is). Everyone was having fun.
Then, Ivy, Carol, Lena and I started making "Yong Tau Fu" (Yup, totally unrelated to football). We have all kind of veggies (egg plants, bitter gourds, okra, chili, & long beans) and tofu; basically anything that can make "yong tau fu".
It took us about an hour to stuff all the veggies and tofu. While we were waiting for the steamer to broil, Ivy went home (may be she decided it was too much work..:P). When the steamer was ready, we put the "yong tau fu" to steam. We also tried to pan fry the egg plant and bean curd sheet "yong tau fu". Then Tze and Yee Sin came to our rescue. Yee Sin helped to flip the "yong tau fu" in the pan and Tze helped to eat when they were done....:P
It was a big success and everyone enjoyed the "yong tau fu" very much. The offset is that we made a mess in the kitchen and we didn't finished all 8 boxes of pizza......Of course we didn't really get to watch the Super Bowl game as we were busy making the "yong tau fu". Tharu and Angela were nice to let us use their kitchen (we even digged out the egg plants and tofu puffs from their fridge). I know we have made this Super Bowl Party not so American and hopefully we will get invited to their party again next year.

Party Animals in KC (2/3)

Last weekend was really hectic (2 parties in a row). My body is catching up with my age (getting old) and I wish I manage to survive this week. To make it worse, I have to write analog control loop descriptions for some valves today (In short, some boring jobs lah). With the help of a cup of strong mocha (that is a lot of caffeine for non-coffee drinker like me), lots of gums, sour Ice-Breakers and my i-pod, I managed to stay awake and finish my job. Talking about last weekend, the parties were really fun (For those who missed that, let me keep you posted).
On Saturday, we had a baby shower party for Yeen Lee. It was no ordinary Baby Shower; it was the Malaysian Baby Shower. As usual, Malaysians arrived late. The party was supposed to start at 3pm and the guests started to show up one by one after 3:40pm at our house (we were the proud hosts). Normal lah...
For the party, Yeen Lee provided lots of finger food. I prepared "Keropok" aka shrimp crackers. Frying keropok was quite a task without the right tools. I was using the disposable bamboo chopsticks picking up piece by piece from the wok. All the hard work was worth it as the keropoks were really yummy (can't even find the crumbs in the 3 big containers) . Of course have to thank my auntie Jessica for sending the keropok from Malaysia. Because the weather here is cold we can't dry the keropok under the sun before frying (my mom used to do that), so the trick is to pre-warm in the oven. That way the keropok is easier to fry and won't absorb too much oil.

Then while frying keropok, I was baking "Char Siew" aka roast pork. Ladies who tried the char siew had asked me how I made it (I was flattered). I am no cooking queen but it turned out pretty good looking and quite yummy (may be it's just me thinking that way). So to whomever want to try my "easy recipe" at home, the recipe is to marinade overnight the pork (about 5 strips of pork shoulder or pork butt) with 1 packet of roast pork powder (can get it at oriental/Korean grocery stores, I like the one from Korean store better), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup hoisin sauce. Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F. Bake 35 mins, move to rack and brush on honey generously. Switch your oven from bake to broil, then broil on low until a little burn at the edges turn to other side and brush on honey and broil till burn on edges. Very easy!!

On top of that, I made some chinese donuts (Athena's favorite). I have received lots of comments (of course good ones) on that and they were curious to know how to make it. Well, it's easy. Use the homestyle biscuit dough (can get at any grocery stores), cut each roll into half and fry in medium-high oil till golden. Sprinkle lots of sugar to serve (high Cholesterol and heaty, you know?). But anything fried is good. The easiest dish became the most popular one and Jeffrey wanted to get more. He volunteered to go buy more. Lena, Carol, Angela and Patricia got too creative and made the dough in different shapes to fry. It probably brought back their childhood memories of playing playdoh. That was fun!!
Then we played 2 baby shower games. What's a baby shower without games, right? We played Charades, everyone took turns to act out the baby themed actions for other to guess and team that had the most points win. Angela and Tharu won in that game. Some difficult actions were Electric Swing, Huggies Diaper, Bottle Warmer and the most hilarious one was Breast Feeding (guess who acted out that one..Ha Ha).
The 2nd game was pin the diaper on the baby. Besides diaper, I added bottle, booties, pacifier, ribbon and a bib to make it more challeging. Patricia said the baby I drawn was cute leh...hee hee. Jeffrey won in that game. He managed to put 5 out of 7 at the right place. Some of them pinned the diaper to the face and bib to the bottoms (can't blame them as they have no clue about baby..they were blind folded)...was quite a blast too!!
The next highlights of the party was open gifts. Lots of presents to the soon-to-be parents. They were really blessed to have friends that care. I should say our group of Malaysians are more like family than just friends....
Then the guys continued playing Xbox 360 and the girls continued talking. Talked about food (what else? Malaysians love to eat..ha ha) as well as planning for the Chinese New Year party. We were going to have a BIG CNY party..hee hee (because we are party animals).
Guess what time the baby shower ended? Yeah, it ended at 1:30a.m. That's why I said it's a Malaysian Baby Shower. The longest flag pole, the tallest twin towers,...and the longest Baby Shower....Malaysian kiasu lah! Ha Ha...